New road to Tuktoyaktuk could be a pathway to prosperity

Just weeks from now, Canada’s Arctic coastline will be linked by road to the rest of Canada for the first time in history. Local residents hope the new $299 million highway will be a pathway to prosperity.

Ahead of its anticipated Nov. 15 unveiling, CTV’s Melanie Nagy was granted special access to the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, which snakes its way through 137 kilometres of Northwest Territories tundra.

Welcome to Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. a small village of just over 900 people nestled next to the Arctic Ocean. (CTV News)

The road connects the Town of Inuvik (pop. 3,200) to Tuktoyaktuk, a village on the Arctic Ocean whose roughly 850 residents are currently linked to the south only by sea, bush plane or winter ice road.

The landscape around Inuvik is seen in this aerial view. The highway will run through northern Canada from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. (CTV News)

Inuvik has been connected to Whitehorse, Yukon, since the Dempster Highway opened in 1979, but locals there see Arctic access as a big economic opportunity.

Inuvik Mayor Jim McDonald, who was born and raised in Inuvik, said the town has struggled economically. The four-year project with $200 million in funding from Ottawa and $99 million from the territorial government has already been a boon.

McDonald said he hopes the highway will lead to more local trade and new jobs in sectors like tourism.

“I think it is time we develop the region,” he said. “Because I think that is the future for the next generation.”